Don't be like a Parrot but be Practical

"Once there was a Holy teacher who was having a big hermitage. He was having a pet Parrot to whom he taught how not to get caught in the forest by the hunter’s trap. His parrot, who could speak well learnt all those ways & recited daily to his friends in the forest those ways, how not to get caught in the hunter’s trap. All of his friends learnt all the ways well.

One day a hunter came in the forest. The parrot started reciting loudly all the ways how to run away & not to get caught in the hunter’s trap. All of the friends of the parrot ran away & escaped the hunter’s trap but that parrot did nothing but went on chanting those lines, how not to get caught in the trap of the hunter. So he himself was trapped & killed while all his friends acting on his advice ran away & saved their lives.

So the Holy teacher told his disciples that, "Don’t be like that parrot who only believed in chanting but be practical in implementing his advice in their lives as then only they can be great people. God is happy with those who do the action & not mere recite the holy words."

Below are verses of Bhagwat Gita which tell that doing action is better than not working at all :

"niyatam kuru karma tvam
karma jyayo hy akarmanah
satire-satrapy cha tee
an prasiddhyed akarmanah" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Three verse 8)

"Sri Krishna said: Do You perform your prescribed duty; for doing action is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one’s physical body without work."

"brahmany adhaya karmani
sangam tyaktva karoti yah
lipyate an sa papena
padma-patram ivambhasa" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Five verse 10)

"Sri Krishna said: One who performs his duty offering all actions & surrendering the results unto the God, remains unaffected by sin; same as the lotus leaf is untouched by water."

"ye tu sarvani karmani
mayi sannyasya mat-parah
ananyenaiva yogena
mam dhyayanta upasate"

"tesam aham samuddharta
mrityu-samsara-sagarat
bhavami an cirat partha
mayy avesita-cetasam" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Twelve verse 6-7)

"Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, But those depending exclusively on me & those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, having fixed their minds upon Me, O son of Pritha (Arjuna) — for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death."

"sreyo hi jnanam abhyasaj
jnanad dhyanam visisyate
dhyanat karma-phala-tyagas
tyagac chantir anantaram" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Twelve verse 12)

"Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, If you cannot take to this practice, then engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge. Better than knowledge, however, is meditation, and better than meditation is renunciation of the fruits of action, for by such renunciation one can attain peace of mind."

So let's do all our work always remembering the God & offer all our work to God. In this way you shall be sustaining your family life & shall be doing good to the society also. God shall be happy with you as you shall devote all of your work & life to God only.



Jai Sri Krishna